More personal. More productive. More than just PR.

We’re hardly your typical healthcare PR agency. From messaging and media relations, to design, digital, and strategy development, we provide the support of a full-service communications agency with the personal touch of your own internal team.

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Services

A TOUCH OF BRILLIANCE

Whether you’re trying to connect with customers, patients, their caregivers, investors, or employees, our creative team specializes in impact. With thoughtful positioning and visual polish, we add a human touch that unites head and heart.

CURATED NARRATIVES

The health of your business depends on how well you tell your story. We are experienced communicators who know how to craft the powerful messages and strategies that get you noticed.

CULTIVATED ENGAGEMENT

For us, it’s more than eyeballs, clicks, and coverage. We leverage our extensive networks to make sure the right people see you so you see real, measurable results.

COMMUNICATIONS

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MEDIA RELATIONS

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MESSAGING

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

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DIGITAL MARKETING

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Clients

We adore our clients. From startups to publicly traded corporations, we’re honored to work with some of today’s brightest innovators who are revolutionizing healthcare and improving patients' lives around the world.

“Having the Health+Commerce team as an extension of our team has been a critical part of our rapid growth and success. We have a small internal team and the work they’ve done for us on PR, social media, online and offline advertising, and messaging/positioning has been fast, flexible, and cost-effective. They are true professionals and a pleasure to work with.”

– Matt Monarski, Sr. Director of Global Marketing, NeoTract, Inc.

“I’ve had the benefit of working with Nicole and her team on projects ranging from early start-ups establishing their identity, to large campaigns involving extensive national coverage. In each case their performance was flawless.”

– Greg Bakan, CEO, Cotera

“Nicole’s team has worked for me at three start-up companies, helping to develop communications strategy, provide media training, create background materials, and garner media attention. During a major data release, Nicole was a critical partner enabling us to gain national media coverage. Throughout, her strategic vision and thoroughness of preparation has enabled the smaller companies I’ve worked for develop a large and professional presence.”

– Chris Pfaff, VP of Marketing and Clinical Research, Ceterix

Team

We’re so much more than agency people. With over 80 years combined on the ground in the medtech industry, we know what works. Passionate and dedicated to your success, we nurture strong partnerships and leverage our connections to support the growth of your business.

Nicole Osmer

FOUNDER

Krysta Pellegrino

PRACTICE LEADER, PUBLIC RELATIONS

Kristin Deuber, APR

VICE PRESIDENT

Jana Chow

VICE PRESIDENT

Reece MacDonald

ACCOUNT DIRECTOR

Rachel Stein

ACCOUNT DIRECTOR

Sierra Smith

ACCOUNT ASSOCIATE

Michael Quinn

DIGITAL MARKETING

Karen Serpa

ACCOUNT MANAGER

Erica Smythe

SR ACCOUNT MANAGER

Tim Hay

MEDIA STRATEGIST

Malorie Pastor

ACCOUNT DIRECTOR

Hannah Boxerman

ACCOUNT ASSOCIATE

Lindsey Wessbecher

MARKETING ACCOUNT MANAGER

Durae Hardy

ACCOUNT MANAGER

Gina Lim

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Lara Lingenbrink

ASSISTANT ACCOUNT ASSOCIATE

Penny Nicki Minaj Osmer

CHIEF DOG OFFICER

Nicole Osmer

Nicole works closely with companies and their customers to highlight innovation and leadership in the field of healthcare. Her targeted public relations and social media programs have brought life-transforming technologies to the forefront for millions of Americans for healthcare innovators like Abbott, Medtronic, Ardian, Nevro, Intersect ENT, NeoTract, CardioDx, CardioKinetix, HeartFlow, and Outset Medical. Prior to founding Health+Commerce, Nicole managed external communications for Guidant’s stent and cardiac surgery divisions where she played a key role in strategic planning and communications. She is a founding member of MedtechWomen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to highlighting medtech women leaders and was named a 2015 PR Executive of the Year by the Business Intelligence Group.

Krysta Pellegrino

Krysta Pellegrino joined Health+Commerce with 17 years of healthcare communications experience for medical device, biotech and pharmaceutical companies. She leads the agency’s public relations practice, and is responsible for overseeing client communications programs as well as mentoring and training the company’s employees and consultants. Prior to joining Health+Commerce, Krysta was director of Global Public Affairs at Abbott, where she led all communications initiatives for the vision business including media relations, social media strategy, executive communications and issues management. Prior to Abbott, Krysta led external public relations for Genentech’s cancer and ophthalmology businesses for nine years. Krysta has served as the president of the San Francisco Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has won numerous awards in recognition for her work.

Kristin Deuber, APR

With 20 years of public relations experience, Kristin is an expert in communications planning, thought leadership initiatives, message development, media relations and crisis communications. She is responsible for crafting strategic public relations campaigns for a portfolio of Health + Commerce clients and working with the agency’s growing staff to manage the ongoing implementation of these programs. Prior to joining Health + Commerce, Kristin was a PR consultant working with companies across the healthcare landscape including KindredBio, Sickweather, Fortified Health Security, Quantum Health, The Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine, Ohio Health and Joimax. She also had a lengthy tenure as a Vice President of the healthcare practice at Paul Werth Associates, one of the Midwest’s leading public relations firms. Kristin serves on the executive committee of the Public Relations Society of America’s National Health Academy as well as the board of the San Diego PRSA Chapter.

Jana Chow

Jana Chow brings more than 10 years of experience in healthcare communications, with expertise in media relations, social media, executive communications, and issues and crisis management. As a senior account director at Health+Commerce, Jana is the senior lead on client accounts, providing day-to-day strategic counsel, planning and account and team oversight. Previously, Jana was a vice president in the healthcare practice at FleishmanHillard where she worked with Kaiser Permanente, Abbott and various medical device startups. Jana also worked in media relations at Stanford Health Care, where she managed the health system’s external communications and social media activities; and at Intuitive Surgical, where she led creative campaigns showcasing the benefits of minimally invasive surgery. Jana holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Point Loma Nazarene University, and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Reece MacDonald

Reece’s career began in investment research at ABR Investment Strategy, a boutique firm focused on healthcare and technology. As an account manager Reece provided research analytics and trading strategies to mutual and hedge fund managers at Fidelity, Putnam, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Alpha One Capital, and The Boston Company. His broad analytical background in healthcare, technology, and renewable energy allows him to offer our clients unique perspectives on messaging, stakeholder engagement, and insight-based communications campaigns. Most recently, Reece was a senior analyst in the Global Asset Management organization of SunEdison where he was responsible for research and corporate due-diligence for the company’s operating businesses and for potential corporate acquisitions.

Rachel Stein

Rachel Stein has more than 14 years of in-house and agency experience developing communications campaigns and media relations strategies that directly impact sales growth. Prior to joining Health + Commerce, she spent 11 years at Avanos Medical, a device company that manufactures continuous, regional non-opioid and IV therapy infusion systems. Her responsibilities included overseeing content curation, public relations, advertising, marketing, brand management, and social media. Rachel started her career at Bock Communications, a high-tech PR agency in Orange County, where she developed and executed global media and analyst relations programs. During her time at Bock, Rachel won multiple OC PRSA PROTOS awards.

Sierra Smith

Sierra's responsibilities include research, media monitoring, social media strategy development, media coverage reports and project management. She graduated from Sonoma State University with a B.A. in Communications and Media Studies.

Michael Quinn

Michael has over 10 years of experience in marketing and has helped dozens of businesses create predictable systems through online marketing. His expertise includes using Facebook advertising, search engine marketing, and Google pay-per-click (PPC). Michael's career began in television advertising, and he eventually transitioned to general marketing consulting in the health care, financial services and real estate industries. His passion for helping business achieve measurable and cost-effective results drives his focus on the exciting and ever-changing online marketing landscape.

Karen Serpa

Karen is an Account Manager with more than 10 years experience working for large international firms and small local businesses as well as government and non-profits, including the California State Senate election, the SPCA, Santa Rosa Parks Foundation, The Special Olympics, and PAWS. Prior to joining Health+Commerce, Karen managed day-to-day marketing operations for several medical practices across the nation. With an M.A. in English Literature and a love of design, she is an impassioned storyteller and brand developer that enjoys weaving words with graphics. She’s a digital media guru and comes to Health+Commerce enthusiastic about expanding clients’ global reach and making their stories come to life.

Erica Smythe

Erica brings over six years of traditional and digital marketing experience to the H+C team. She specializes in integrated digital marketing campaigns for B to B and consumer audiences, and is actively involved in each step of the process, from planning and launch to analysis and reporting. Prior to joining H+C, Erica managed the marketing efforts for large medical practices across the U.S., and worked on projects varying from nonprofit community outreach events to PPC advertising. She graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in Business, Marketing and is passionate about bringing her knowledge and love for marketing to the success of our clients.

Tim Hay

Tim worked as a medical technology reporter for the Wall Street Journal for eight years, where he profiled hundreds of privately held pharmaceutical, medical device and digital health companies. He also wrote extensively about the investment strategies of venture capital firms that back technology startups. As a media strategist with Health+Commerce, Tim helps clients develop storylines and thought leadership that will appeal to top media outlets. He maintains close ties to his former WSJ colleagues, some of whom have moved on to editorial and managerial roles at other publications that lead in business and technology coverage. Since moving into public relations and media strategy in 2015, he has helped medical technology companies obtain coverage by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, MedCityNews and other outlets.

Malorie Pastor

Malorie joins Health+Commerce as a go-to source for all things social media. She has built her career around transforming how brands represent themselves on social media with an emphasis on engagement and community building. With just over a decade of experience in the communications space working with tech startups, nonprofits and retail brands, her foundation lies in traditional public relations, and even among a flurry of Tweets, she can help our clients achieve their PR needs, too. Before joining the Health+Commerce team, Malorie was the associate director of social media for the largest integrated advertising agency in the Southeast where she managed more than 40 clients and 120 social media channels.

Hannah Boxerman

Hannah’s responsibilities include research, media monitoring, social media strategy development, media coverage reports, and project management. She graduated from University of Arizona with a B.A. in Communications and a B.A in Information Science and Electronic Society.

Lindsey Wessbecher

With over 6 years of marketing experience, Lindsey offers our H+C clients expertise in branding, messaging, content creation, campaign strategy and project management. Prior to joining our team, Lindsey worked at Avinger, a medical device company specializing in image guided catheters for the treatment of peripheral artery disease. There, she was responsible for developing and managing the company’s partner program by collaborating with hospitals, outpatient labs and institutions across the country to define and implement custom marketing strategies. Lindsey also lead all of Avinger’s conference and event logistics in addition to generating digital and print collateral content and messaging. She graduated from Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business with a B.S. in Business, Marketing and has enjoyed a career in marketing ever since.

Durae Hardy

Durae specializes in public relations and social media marketing. She joined H+C with an educational background in English and Fine Arts and has over eight years of professional experience in corporate communications. She provides day-to-day client support by managing content curation, developing press releases, and creating original social media assets. Prior to joining Health+Commerce, Durae worked as an in-house marketing manager for a well-loved wine country foodie destination “the girl & the fig.” In that role, Durae developed copy for press releases, websites and advertisements, launched a food and travel blog, and managed social media channels. Durae brings client narratives to life through impactful storytelling and design. Durae earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Printmaking, graduating with distinction from San Diego State University.

Gina Lim

Gina oversees the internal business functions that enable the Health+Commerce staff to stay focused on our most important goal - our clients' success. Gina brings experience from leadership roles in business and production operations functions at Clorox, SunPower and other companies to provide the foundation and infrastructure that enables H+C to continue to grow with its clients.

Lara Lingenbrink

Lara joined Health+Commerce with a background in biotech, data analysis and health communications. She assists the account management team with content curation for press releases and social media while also reporting on research and analytics. Prior to joining the agency, she was the data administrator and communications liaison for Penrose TherapeuTx, an oncology biotechnology company, where she translated patient data to disseminate patterns, developed content for company patents, and adjusted treatment protocols. She is a University of San Francisco alumna with a B.A. in Health Communications.

Penny Nicki Minaj Osmer

Penny manages the H+C day-to-day office relations by supervising all dog activities and offering employee and client therapy. She joined the agency from Woodside, California where she provided kisses and cuddles to her birth home family and has over 18 dog years of corporate communications experience. When Penny is not offering strategic advice, she takes herself on leisurely walks to the local burger joint and chases the mailman. Penny is a puppy school dropout, but we think that was an unfortunate oversight on the trainer’s behalf.